"How can diminishment inform my spiritual practice of aging? I find opportunity and perspective. Two insights offer hope:
"Carl Jung tells us that 'the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally unsolvable; they can never be solved only grown out of.' As we grow out of them, we grow out of anxiety.
"Merton reminds us that God waits for us in silence and that God waits for all of our inner noise to exhaust itself.
"In these two insights I find a cause and effect. If Jung is right, then I've outgrown a lot of unsolvable problems. I've let go of them, such as issues that involve control, the pursuit of worldly success, or what Merton calls 'the poisonous urge to change everything.' I try, not always successfully, to offer advice to offspring only when asked, keeping in mind that although I'm not done loving them, I am finished raising them. Now, to Merton's point, that's a lot of inner noise that has exhausted itself.
"Perhaps Merton and Jung were echoing the wonderful promise of Job: 'Wisdom is found in the old, and discretion comes with great age' (12:12, NJB).
"Does this mean I'm gaining on my ego? Perhaps. Spiritual writers since the desert fathers write of the death of the self, the need to transcend our self-interest in order to find union with God. Is this our opportunity? Why not abandon the ego? Why not let go of life's apparent illusions? It's no easy task. Illusions are real in that they captured my commitment and energy. The discretion comes in my attempts to sort through them, to jettison what's no longer important, to acknowledge with Jung that it's time to grow out of them."
